


Come Back to Me Safely

by TheSkyeIsFalling



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BAMF Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Clones, Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith is a disaster, M/M, Major Character Injury, Multilingual Lance (Voltron), Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Secret Messages, Smart Lance (Voltron), eventual gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2020-12-22 21:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21083594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSkyeIsFalling/pseuds/TheSkyeIsFalling
Summary: Lance figures out that Shiro might not be who he says he is but nobody else will believe him. After a solo mission that nearly cost him his life, Lance puts together a plan behind the teams back to get to the bottom of things. The only person he can count on to have his back now is Keith.(ON HIATUS UNTIL JANUARY 2020, Sorry for the wait but i will be back, I have pages full of notes/plans for this and it would kill me if I didn't finish it.)





	1. Trust Me

**Author's Note:**

> One minute I'm trying to get over the show, the next I'm neck deep in klance fics and come up with this dumbass fic idea. I haven't attempted to write a fanfic since grade eight and that was like, uh, six years ago, so I apologize if this is horrible or out of character. I do plan to end this regardless though. Idk how often I'll update cause despite already writing chapter three already, I'm a perfectionist and keep editing when I should just stop.

Lance yawned as he made his way to his room, his body hunched over seeming to drag itself down the hall. He'd always been good at acting, this exhaustion was all for show. Keeping his head forward he made a note of every camera he passed in the corner of his eye. 

Being ignored and left out by the team had its advantages, he'd learned to move around without anyone ever noticing. Over his time in space, he'd devoted himself to learning every little inner working of the Castle, spent sleepless nights cramming Altean and Galran vocab into his head. At first, it had started as a precaution on the off chance the Castle went nuts again, or he wasn't fast enough to save Coran the next time. Now though, it became a hobby to pass the time outside the training deck.

As he turned down a corridor, his door just a few feet away, he sluggishly bumped into the wall nearly tripping over himself before catching his balance. He knew everyone was asleep but he had to lay it on thick for the cameras otherwise his plan would go to shit. He fell forward as his door slide open walking slowly in the dark before waiting for the door to shut behind him. Engulfed in darkness the door clicked shut, time to get to work.

Turning on the light he grabbed his tablet off the desk and made his way to the bed. In the earlier weeks of being on the ship, he'd had a nightmare about the fake Rover and the explosion that left his back mutilated with scars, in his panic he'd accidentally kicked a panel at the foot of the bed free. Coran had meant to come and fix it but it didn't harm anything, it kept getting put off by more important repairs until it got left forgotten, now it served as Lance's secret closet.

Carefully pulling the panel off, he placed it on the floor against the wall and reached into the deep hole. He began pulling out a large duffel bag of clothes and a backpack that stored medkits and rations. Next was another tablet, a newer model compared to the standard Castle ones. Lastly, a black modified blaster and a matching cylinder about the size of a hairspray can. Everything was laid out neatly in a row on the bed, without knocking anything off he carefully replaced the panel to the wall. 

All his supplies were accounted for, next he had to take care of the cameras. Lance grabbed the original tablet and sat on the edge of the bed, as it booted up he shrugged off his jacket and threw on the floor by the door, gotta make it look like he took it off in his haste to get to bed. Once on, he began hacking into the castle's systems, Pidge had always made it look easy but it also made her an unknowingly good teacher if you watched her closely. He was in after a few doboshes and loaded up the camera controls. Hunk, Shiro and Allura were in their rooms, most likely in bed like they said they'd be doing. Coran was asleep on the engine room floor with a maintenance scan running in the background, Pidge was right where he'd left her. She'd been hanging onto what little consciousness she had left before he'd left, they'd been the last to leave after dinner, now she was completely asleep at the table resting on her curled up arms. Perfect.

He brought up the kitchen camera and rewound it to when he'd snuck the drug into everyone else's meal, deleting the few ticks it had taken him to do so was easy and got the rest of the footage to flow smoothly. Lastly, he set the other cameras to loop the last few ticks for the next two vargas, thus rendering any movement from that point on invisible.

He had about three Vargas till the drugs wore off and people were bound to wake up. Closing out of the cameras he loaded up his bedroom doors lock mechanism, downloading an audio file he'd recorded earlier that morning and embedded it into the code he'd created to play it whenever someone knocked. It had safety precautions that required one of two things to be met, once met it would go into self-destruct mode deleting the code entirely. Requirement option one: somebody had to attempt to force the door open, regardless of them being successful or not. Requirement option two: a voice recognition system was in place as everybody's voice was paired with a timestamp of the audio recording so that it would play their part when they came to the door (it was easier recording one file and timestamping it then it was to record individual files and making sure it went to the right on). Keith's voice, however, was put in place as the requirement.

He was just about done, exiting the Castles systems he tossed the tablet back on the bed as it went through a scan deleting the days' history. In the meantime he stripped out of his jeans and shirt, opening up the duffle for a change of clothes.

A black flight suit not much different from their paladin armour, black metal shoes that looked like the space equivalent of hiking boots, a grey hooded poncho, and a utility belt. Like the paladin armour, the flight suit ended just above his Adams-apple, however, the collar had a metal ring around his neck that would materialize his helmet from his wrist panel. The poncho had a deep V-neck collar and holes just below his shoulders to put his arms through rather than sleeves. The front hem ended in an asymmetrical point just above his right knee curving up to his hips before curving down the back the same way, ending mid-calf.

Just as the belt was strapped and situated comfortably on his hips the tablet beeped, signalling that the scan was done. Quickly, he attached the cylinder to the belt and threw the rest of his supplies into the duffle bag placing it and the backpack by the door.

He stared at the Castle tablet in front of him as he pressed his back to the wall at the foot of the bed. He'd tried to call Keith twice a week since he left for the Blade, that was about four months ago, and not once had he answered, hadn't even had the courtesy to call back. Hadn't they become friends? It hurt being ignored by him. Kolivan even got mad at him at one point when he'd tried the Blade comms themselves, saying 'they were to only be used in emergencies and that Keith was busy with his training'. That had been a rough night.

The others wouldn't listen to him and his concerns about Shiro, all they did was put him down with a laugh. Rest of the time they didn't even notice his presence, not that they noticed it much to begin with. Lance sighed, dragging his hands down his face. Keith didn't need to respond this time, he just needed to see the message and understand.

Shaking out the last of his nerves he began situating the tablet upright to record. He only had one shot at getting this across and a limited amount of time before his escape was lost.

~~~~~~

Kolivan meant well, he was a decent guy, but at this point he had Keith working himself to an early grave. He'd slept more between missions on the pods then he did in his actual bed on base. The mission he'd just returned from had been an exhausting one, Shiro and Lotor showing up at the Kral Zera had ruined the Blades attempt at sabotage. A tired sigh escaped his lips as he entered his makeshift room.

As his door closed he began clawing at his suit, unable to get it off fast enough, the weight of it sitting uncomfortably on his aching body. Once free and standing in nothing but his boxers he made his way to his bed, his only reprieve from his work. He'd just been about to lay down when the flashing on his night table caught his eye. With a groan, he fell face-first into his bed.

_ Lance. _

Slowly he turned, flopping onto his back with a painful grunt (he never realized how much he'd taken Altean technology for granted until he no longer had use of the cryopods). He did intend on calling him back, though he didn't know when exactly. He'd never admit it out loud, Lance would never let him live it down, but god did he miss Lance. 

There was no specific moment Keith could pinpoint as too when he'd fallen in love with Lance. It had been a slow and gradual fall, by the time he realized his feelings he had been too deep to climb himself out. God did the realization hurt, Lance was always flirting with people, with girls. Nothing ever suggested that he was interested in guys, let alone Keith. 

He had tried to get over him, distance himself from Lance, bury himself in work going on mission after mission. If he called Lance back it would bring all those feelings back to the forefront of his mind, he didn't think he could stay away if he indulged in late-night private conversations. He wasn't ready for the heartbreak, didn't know if he ever would be.

He had to put it off, he sighed as he began sitting up. Pulling his tablet into his lap he went to delete the missed call notification like he'd been doing...except it wasn't a missed call. It was addressed from Lance like he had expected but it was a direct message instead of a call. It was dated from two days ago, sent just shortly after he'd left for his mission. There was no harm in a message, there was no notification when someone viewed a message, Lance wouldn't know that he'd read it.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he could wait a couple more minutes, he readied himself for whatever the message would be and opened it. The app seemed to sense his anxiety as it took it's time to load, he was starting to second guess his decision and thought about putting it off like everything else related to Lance when it finally opened.

That wasn't what he'd been expecting, honestly, he didn't know what to expect, it was Lance. Lance had sent him an untitled video file. He looked down at his tablet in confusion. Yes, he'd been putting off the private calls with Lance but he still saw him when he was present during the debriefings between Voltron and the Blade. A call or a message made sense if he wanted to talk but what reason would he have to send a prerecorded video? Maybe something happened that he wanted to share with Keith, a '_ you had to be there _' kinda moment that he'd recorded to keep him in the loop? Lance was the type to do that, he'd always go into detail to explain his jokes so Keith never felt left out.

The tablet lay in his lap as he fell backward onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. A frown etched into his face, should he watch it? Did he want to watch it? Lance was his friend-best friend-if he wasn't going to call him back he at least owed it to him to watch the video. Right?

With a resigned groan, he sat up again placing his pillow against the wall to lean back on and draped his blanket over his legs letting it bunch up in his lap. He could do this, a final deep breath and he was picking the tablet up and clicked the file. 

The still frame in front of him as the video opened confused him more than the message itself. It looked like Lance had placed his tablet against his pillows facing him at an upward angle as he sat near the end of his bed. Lance sat with his body facing the camera but his head was looking a bit to the right, where Keith guessed the door should be. He looked nervous, a few tears noticeably staining his cheeks, his lip was busted and what looked like fresh bruises littered the left side of his face. Instead of the usual green jacket and jeans, he was wearing a grey jacket and what looked like a flight suit. Lance looked tougher, older than the last time he'd seen him. That had only been a week ago and he'd still been wearing his clothes from Earth, did something happen to them? If he was injured why hadn't he gone into a cryopod? Lance always prided himself in his looks, he wouldn't have just left the bruises alone. Or would he? 

Guilt began to build in the bottom of his stomach, neither really talked during the debriefings as they were always strictly business, Kolivan wasn't much for small talk. Maybe Lance had changed. He had to know what Lance wanted to show him now, so he pulled his legs up to rest the tablet against. Hitting play he crossed his arms over his chest and got comfortable against the pillow.

The video opened to loud rustling looking up to Lance's ceiling, it quickly arched downwards as Lance adjusted it, his face up close to the screen. Once satisfied he slowly backed up sitting straight, hands raised ready to steady the tablet if it decided not to stay. He sighed, one hand rubbing the black material on the back of his neck as he nervously looked towards his door. "I don't have much time." He whispered, likely talking more to himself then Keith. A deep breath and he turned to the camera, hand falling in front of him, his face cooling to a look of determination.

"This might not make sense, I've been having a hard time making sense of it myself. I don't know who's doing it or how they're doing it but something's wrong with Shiro. I thought it was all in my head, that I was overreacting but I'm not. I'd tried to bring up my concerns to Pidge and Hunk," he dragged his hand down his face, wincing when he pressed too hard on a bruise. "Of course they didn't believe me, they laughed." A mix of frustration and sadness settled on his face, his eyes began to wander the room. 

"I even tried bringing it up to Allura but she wouldn't have any of it. She yelled at me." He huffed, "_ 'How dare I not trust Shiro, Shiro is our leader, blah blah blah.' _ Pretty much played me as the bad guy for being cautious. Corans always busy working on something in the Castle so I haven't found a chance to talk to him about it. Doubt he'd listen though, he's always looking on the bright side and would probably try to say Shiro is just under a lot of stress or something. I'd even been trying to call you, see if I could get your opinion on Shiro. You know him better than any of us so if he was acting strange you'd know for sure." Lance's eyes seemed to gloss over when he spoke again, his voice was soft and sad. "Why'd you never pick up? I really hope...I really need you to see this."

The guilt that he'd felt doubled, overcrowding his insides. Lance had been calling for help. What was happening with Shiro that had Lance so worried? Shiro had always seemed fine in the debriefing calls, yeah they had their disagreements before he left but he still seemed like himself. Hadn't he? His brain had been all over the place with his attention divided between Voltron and the Blade, not to mention the frustration Lotor was causing. Maybe Shiro had been acting differently and he hadn't noticed.

"I was too loud, too nosy about my suspicions, he caught on that I knew. He started lashing out at me, trying to silence me during missions or planning, told me to shut up at dinner a few times too." He let out a wet laugh, head beginning to hang. "Whenever it was just us or no one else was paying attention he would give me this weird look, like he was analyzing me, planning something. Then the solo missions started, he always construed them like they were simple enough that only I was needed, but they weren't." Frustration evident on his face, his hands began to ball up pulling on the hem of his jacket. "Each one harder than the last, more and more Galra I had to fight." The tears started to slowly roll down his cheeks.

"The last one," he refused to look at the camera, "my comms...the comms wouldn't work. I was stranded in the middle of an entire armada and I couldn't reach anyone for back up. Keith-" he choked out a sob then, he was breaking down on camera and taking a second to catch his breath before continuing. "Keith, I nearly died and nobody would've cared. I still don't know how I got away, but I know I won't be so lucky next time." He leaned back against the wall, trying to calm himself, wiping away the tears even though more kept coming to replace them.

Keith could feel his heart stop, his vision started to blur as unshed tears gathered in his eyes. They were in a war, there was never a guarantee that any of them would survive, but hearing how close Lance had been to not making it was still terrifying.

Lance continued, "I have a plan to keep that from happening, to get to the bottom of this Shiro business, but I need you to have my back." He turned back to the camera, the determination from earlier was back, even as tears stained his face. 

"I only have so much time left so this is gonna have to be quick. I slipped an anesthetic type drug into everyone's food during dinner so everyone is currently out cold. I may not be good with tech like Pidge and Hunk but I know my way around it, I did attend the Garrison after all." A hint of a laugh caught in his throat as he huffed. "I've been helping Coran with the Castle and even learned Altean since we first arrived, watching how Pidge does her thing just made it that much easier. While they're asleep the cameras are set to loop making me damn near invisible. Not that I'm not already invisible, nobody notices when I'm in the room anymore and if they do they choose to ignore me." The last bit came out more like an afterthought.

"We've been stopping at different planets almost every day for a week now trying to advertise the Voltron Show and gain more allied planets so I can slip off the ship and into a crowd without being noticed. With all of that, it should give me a two to three days' head start and by the time they realize they won't know when I left leaving them unable to find which planet I got off at until it's too late."

He looked around the room, a hollow sadness seemed to be setting in. "I'm leaving everything behind, one thing Shiro may not have accounted for with the solo missions is that it allowed me to do some secret jobs on the side to make some cash. Got a whole new wardrobe, I even bought myself a tricked out blaster that can work as a rifle and this neat retractable sword. Kinda works like your Marmora Blade."

Lance was planning on leaving his bayard behind. It made sense, it had a unique signature that the team would be able to track, but they were practically indestructible and easier to conceal. Would he be safe without it? Why had he gotten a sword, did he know how to use one? When would Lance have learned how? All in all, he was in awe of Lance's ingenuity.

"Now this is where you come in, I need someone I can trust on the inside. They can't know that I told you, once they notice I'm gone their gonna need you so they can form Voltron until they find me. I talked to Red, she's agreed to help and won't let anyone else pilot her except you that way the team _ has _ to get in contact. I'll get in contact when I can to keep you updated on what I find but you gotta act natural, don't let Shiro know that your suspicions of him or he'll try to get rid of you too."

A beeping sound started off-screen to Lance's left. "I gotta go, I'm outta time. Stay safe Samurai." The video cut off abruptly leaving Keith to stare at a black screen.

The video had been sent two days ago and he had yet to hear from the others, Lance had been able to get ahead start. It had to have worked. But he also hadn't received anything else from Lance since, how did he know if he was safe?

Should he bring this up with Kolivan? No, he'd cut ties if he thought Voltron couldn't be trusted and that could risk putting him and Lance in danger. Was he supposed to just sit and wait till they contacted him? How much longer until they noticed Lance's disappearance?

He placed the tablet back on the night table and flicked off the lights to head to bed. Staying up all night worrying wouldn't do anybody any good. Curling up he got comfortable, hopefully he'd hear something soon from somebody. The next time Lance contacted him he wouldn't put it off, Lance had trusted him to have his back even after being ignored for months, he couldn't do that to him again.

_ Please stay safe lance._


	2. First Contact

Paper didn't seem to exist in space, if it did Keith had yet to come across it. Regardless of it being on actual paper or on the Blade holoscreens, he'd still labelled the task in front of him as paperwork. Turns out he wasn't the only one who hated it.

Since members were always quick to volunteer for field missions they were always in need of extra hands to keep files organized and updated. Because of that, it hadn't taken much for him to convince Kolivan to keep him on base rather than out on another mission assignment for the next while. It worked in his favour perfectly too, placing him in the back corner of the bridge, angled where he could watch the incoming calls discreetly.

By this point, it had been two days since he'd since the video. Panic was starting to set in as he still had yet to hear from either Lance or Castle, they would've noticed by now, wouldn't they? Maybe he should contact them.

Just as he started to contemplate asking Kolivan to let him call the Castle, the comms started beeping. He watched out of his peripheral pretending to continue his work as Kolivan answered, Allura's dishevelled appearance filled up the screen instantly

"Kolivan" she seemed oddly annoyed if this was about Lance's disappearance, shouldn't she be worried?

"Princess. We didn't have a scheduled meeting, is something the matter? If you send us your coordinates I can send a team to aid you." Keith could see Kolivan bringing up a list of available members on a separate screen.

"That won't be necessary Kolivan, were fine. I just need to speak to Keith is all, if he is available. The sooner the better." She huffed.

Kolivan paused what he'd been doing and gave him a puzzled look. "Of course, just a tick." Keith wasn't being subtly anymore and had been caught, so instead of getting his attention verbally, Kolivan jerked his head back towards the screen. Closing the list he'd brought up as he turned to leave.

Making sure to save his work, Keith shut down his as well and made his way to the comm. He had to be calm, as far as they knew he was unaware of what had been happening on the Castle. Truth be told, he still didn't know the extent of it, Lance hadn't gone into much detail. That should, in theory, make it easier to hide what little he did know.

"Allura, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Oh, thank goodness you're here. Lance seems to have some sort of cold and refuses to leave his room. Whatever is wrong with him seems to be affecting Red." A perfectly timed roar followed up with a large bang reverberated through the Castle, proving her point. "Neither will listen to reason. We need you to calm Red down or convince Lance to go in a cryopod before she tears the hanger apart." She had to start yelling for him to hear her, the ship having jerked to the left knocking her to the floor.

They thought Lance was still on the ship, he'd mentioned that Red agreed to cooperate, maybe this was her trying to speed things up. He just had to play along, he could do that. "Wait, how would a cold affect one of the lions?"

"Altean illnesses are different than humans so neither Coran or I know the full effect a cold has to the connection with the lions, and he refuses to leave or let us in to do anything to monitor his condition. He's adamant that its a simple cold and that he'll be fine. "

By this point she'd managed to stand back up with a frustrated scowl, her hair beginning to fall out of her bun in bigger chunks now. She tried to compose herself but it wasn't doing anything anymore.

"I'll let Kolivan know the situation and head to you guys as soon as I can." 

She relaxed at this, "Thank you, I can open a wormhole to shorten the travel. Thirty doboshes from now should be good right?"

"Yeah that sounds good, I'll see you guys shortly." He closed the link before she could say anything else. So he was being hailed to deal with Red, but he had to find some way of showing that Lance wasn't there. 

Despite being the leader for a short period, he still ran more on instinct than strategy, surprisingly Lance had been remarkably good at it, his insight made leading less stressful. Hopefully, he could come up with something on the spot once he arrived. The others knew that he and Lance were at least friends by now so it wouldn't be weird if he decided to check on him after Red, Allura had even asked if he could try and convince Lance to go in a pod, he could try and use that as his reasoning.

It wasn't hard to find Kolivan to fill him in, he'd been right outside the door with one of the returning teams. Since Keith already wasn't going on missions at the moment he was fine with letting him go on leave for a few days but to contact him immediately if there were any changes. After that, he changed into his civilian clothes tossing the blade uniform into a backpack and headed out to get to the wormhole.

It felt strange being on the Castle again like he didn't belong. He was greeted by the team, minus Lance, and Matt who he's had a total of three conversations with, one of them being before Kerberos. Where he stood with him Keith wasn't sure but they were friendly enough with each other for it to not be uncomfortable.

"It's good to see you, Keith, it really is but we need you to calm Red down immediately." Allura had rushed him the second he'd stepped off his ship and started dragging him down the hanger.

"Sorry man, Red's been acting up since yesterday so none of us have been able to sleep." Hunk laughed.

"She's been doing this since yesterday? How long has Lance been sick?" Why hadn't they called him sooner?

Hunk opened his mouth to respond but then stopped with a frown. "A day, maybe two. I don't know, Pidge when was the last time you saw him?"

"Last I saw him was when we were trying to figure out what to do about the Kral Zera and he stomped off." She shrugged.

Stopping in front of the Red lion's hanger, Allura turned to face everyone confused. "That can't be right, that was almost a movement ago. Wasn't he at dinner the other day?"

Keith was shocked, these where Lance's friends and they hadn't even noticed that he was gone, let alone when they'd last seen him. "So nobody knows how long he's been sick." At the sound of Keith's voice, Red stopped jumping about, deciding to lay down in front of him.

He sighed, laying a hand on Red's paw she purred through his mind, she really had been doing it just to get the team's attention. "Reds gonna be fine. So Lance is refusing to leave his room, has anybody tried to force him out?" The others looked to each other questioningly before shaking their heads. "Then I guess that's what we're going to do." Before anybody could argue he pushed his way passed towards the elevator. Luckily the others followed behind him, either to see what he'd do or to check on Lance themselves. 

Matt and Pidge were explaining the symptoms of Human colds and flu's to Allura as they made the trek through the Castle. Everybody had said Lance's door was locked which still didn't make sense to Keith as they had a weird locking mechanism. It had been a safety measure implemented at the beginning of the war to keep the Galra from getting into certain areas, doors could only be opened from the same side they were locked from. So if they couldn't open the door when they tried to check on him it had to have been locked from the inside.

Keith was beginning to get anxious, Lance's room was just around the corner at this point. "Coran is there a way to unlock the door from the outside in case he doesn't let us in?"

"There's an override key at the Castle's main controls in the bridge, but hopefully it doesn't come to that."

"Hopefully," he mumbled. Lance's door stood before him, what was he supposed to do, he knew Lance wasn't actually there. "Lance you in there? Can you open up for a sec?" He settled on yelling as he knocked against the cold metal. Instead of a response there was a loud click as the door unlocked, but it made no indication it was going to open.

"Hey, you got him to unlock the door, way to go Keith." Hunk cheered.

"Huh, normally he'd shout back that he was fine by know." Pidge stared at the door weirdly.

He shrugged before placing his hand on the scanner, with an airy whoosh the doors slid open. The room was dark, the only light filtering in from the hallway, Keith almost tripped on Lances jacket as he stepped inside to hit the switch. Lance's usual clothes were strewn across the floor among a few book adapters he'd probably grabbed from the Castle library; they were USB like devices that could plug into their tablets, each one containing a different book. His tablet was still laying propped up against the pillows on the bed.

"That can't be right, he'd have to be in the room to unlock it." Allura walked to the other side of the room and looked at them perplexed. "He couldn't have just disappeared."

"Could the override key been used?" Pidge asked as she started poking at the other door scanner. "This could be an attempt at an elaborate prank?"

"I'm sorry number five, but its a little more than a press of a button. It was originally meant to lock the rooms to keep staff and supplies safe, but, could also be used to trap the Galra inside. We would've noticed it being used as it would have locked all the doors in this section, including the elevator door. It would unlock all the doors in the same manner but it was only his door that unlocked." 

Everybody went silent after that, there wasn't a reasonable explanation on how the door unlocked without anybody being inside. They all stood around awkwardly staring around the lifeless room. Keith had never been inside Lance's room, though, he had hoped for the possibility, just under different circumstances. Lance came across as someone who'd have a lot of things, just piles of alien souvenirs for when they'd go back to earth, but there was none of that. Keith couldn't even seem to find Lance's facial products on any of the available shelving.

"What about-!" Hunk and Pidge both broke the silence.

"Sorry Hunk you can go first." She waved her hand in front of her face, gesturing that it was no problem.

"Right uh...ok. So, what I was thinking is what if there was another way out. The air on the ship has to be filtered through some kinda vent system right? Remember Pidge, on Arus, you crawled through them to get away from the droids, what if he did the same thing? There's gotta be a vent somewhere in here right?"

"That could be possible, but Pidge is much shorter, wouldn't he have trouble maneuvering around? And his Armor is still in Reds hanger so he wouldn't have a map to help guide him." Allura contemplated Hunks suggestion, looking to see if she could see any visible grate. "What was your idea Pidge?"

"I can access the codes used in the doors lock, the Castle is old, no offence, but maybe it was a glitch? With Coran's help, we can translate it and see if it ran into problems. Lance has been in here for a bit, the door may have just locked behind him on his way to the washrooms or the kitchen, I can check the security cameras to locate him."

"Well until we locate him, Hunk I want you to scan the walls and see if you can find any vent opening in here, even if he didn't use it, it could be helpful in the future. While he's doing that, Pidge can check the cameras and Coran can start translating the code for them to go through." Shiro turned to address Keith next. "I know you just got here and it would be nice to catch up, but I'm gonna lay down for a nap, I recommend you do the same, Princess. You can tell us all about your time at the Blade at dinner." He carefully clapped Keith on the shoulder as he made his way out of the room.

"Yes, my apologies in rushing you over and then disappearing but, I do need to catch up on some sleep. I look forward to hearing how you've been, later though." Allura gave him a quick hug before following Shiro out.

"Feel free to tag along with us if you want, but Lance will probably wanna hang out once he knows your here." Pidge laughed with a shrug as the three of them started walking out to get their gear.

"I might actually head to the kitchen, didn't get a chance to have lunch before heading over. I'll meet up with you at the bridge afterward to see how things go."

"There's some leftover casserole type dish in the fridge from that last planet we were at, help yourself, dude." Hunk shouted as they turned down a different hallway.

Lance had looped the cameras he knew that, though the 'how' was beyond him, so Pidge wasn't gonna find him. He hadn't mentioned the door though, could it really have just been a glitch in the systems that kept them from noticing? It wasn't gonna take them long to notice Lance wasn't on the ship now, guess he better grab his bag and prepare for the call he was gonna have to make to Kolivan. He'd dropped it in the hanger when Allura had started dragging him to Red.

Making it back to where he'd left his bag he headed towards his room to drop it off. As he stepped back onto the elevator a beep emanated from somewhere in his bag, the only thing it could've been was his tablet. Only after he entered his room did he pull it out to investigate, and to his confusion, it was a direct message from an unknown sender.

'_ Are you alone?' _

How was he supposed to respond, was this Lance reaching out to him? There was only one way to find out. _ 'Lance?' _He hit send, tossing the tablet on his bed so he could unpack what little he had in his bag, waiting for a response. Turns out he didn't have to wait long as it beeped seconds later.

_ 'Do they know?' _

What? _ 'Know what?' _He sat on the edge of his bed.

_ 'Really Mullet,' _ So it was Lance, _ 'you know WHAT.' _

_ 'Not yet, they think your sick somewhere on the ship, the only reason I'm here is cause Red was throwing a fit, nobody could get you out of your room.' _ He contemplated for a second whether or not to ask, deciding to go for it, " _ Where are you? _

_ 'Can't tell you.' _

_ 'Why not?' _

_ 'Can't risk getting compromised, or you being impulsive and coming after me.' _ Ok so Lance had a point, doesn't mean he had to agree. ' _ So they contacted you because of Red not because I'm missing? Knew it would take them a while but didn't think it would take this long.' _

_ 'They're definitely going to be aware now.' _ The teams lack of awareness and knowledge of each other's well-being was unacceptable. _ 'So, what can you tell me, if you won't tell me where you are?' _

_ 'Nothing.' _ Well, that was frustrating, he was about to argue with Lance when he got another message. ' _ Not because I don't want to, right now I'm just trying to lay low, so I don't have anything to give. That's actually why I messaged you, I need to know what Voltrons plans are so I can avoid you guys.' _

'_ I don't know, I just got here but I can let you know once I find out.' _

_ 'You're really gonna help me with this?' _

It hurt knowing that Lance had doubts on his willingness to help. _ 'We're a team, of course I'm gonna help. I may not know whats going on but I trust your judgement, you haven't steered me wrong yet.' _

'_ Thanks, mullet.' _

Before he could type another message, Pidge startled him as her voice came through the Castle speakers. "Guys your gonna wanna come to the bridge, like now, this is bad." She probably finished searching the cameras, guess everybody was gonna know Lance was missing now. _ 'Pidge is calling everyone to the bridge, they're about to know now.' _

_ 'I ain't going anywhere yet so fill me in afterwards.' _

_ 'I'll do what I can but I feel like this is gonna be a while.' _Placing his tablet down next to him, he took a deep breath and started towards the bridge.

~~~~~

Getting off the ship was the easy part, now Lance just had to find somebody that would smuggle him off the planet before morning. During the team's exploration of the planet earlier in the day, he'd gotten a few leads of private Traders that would do under-the-counter deals. The problem was actually locating one of them and negotiating a price, he had a decent amount of GAC saved up but he had to make it last, and needed a large portion to get a Fighter-class Stealth Ship. 

He'd been lucky enough to find a dealership located just a Galaxy over when talking to a few repair shops throughout the week, so the team stopping this close to his intended destination made getting there easier. Though not by much.

Coran had defined the planet, Kelpern, as a red Earth that was twice the size. He wasn't wrong, the verdure of Earth was replaced with an intense blood-red hue, it was quite the contrast to the glistening blue-green oceans. Outside of space exploration, they were about as technologically advanced as Shay's Balmera. 

Lance was walking around the quiet market streets of the downtown area, everything already being closed for the day at this hour. Majority of people recommended a trader that usually made their deals at night in one of the alleys, however, nobody knew which one. He was trying to use a biometric scanner in his helmet to hopefully aid him in his search. So far he'd come across a few lifeforms but it was just shop owners who were closing up late. It was nearing midnight by this point and he was running out of time to leave, he had to leave before the Castle departed in a few hours just in case his plan failed and they caught on before he could get far. He'd trekked the entire area at this point and hadn't found anybody, he might have to head over to the docks, there was a trader that lived on the waterfront but his leads tried to deter him from that one cause they were known to rip-off their clientele.

"Heard you're looking for a lift." A gravelly voice called out from somewhere above, looking up to the market roofs Lance caught sight of something large moving about. "Where to?" A head poked over the edge, it looked like a female Kelpian. The Kelpians were large green bats, they didn't have functional wings though, it was a stretch of skin that commonly went from the elbow to the waist.

"Are you Roptera?"

She backed out of view before jumping down in front of him, she was wearing a black fitted jumpsuit, dusting her hand off on her pant leg, she reached forward to shake his hand. "Just Tera and you are?"

"Uh...McClain." He gave her a friendly smile as he shook her hand. Thanks to the Voltron show, his name was synonyms with the Red Paladin, he was gonna have to use an alias.

"Well, McClain, where you going?"

"Teegardie, in the Giles Galaxy. I need to get to the shopping district Tenvy."

"A trip like that's gonna cost ya 2300GAC." She crossed her arm across her chest, carefully eyeing him up. What for he didn't know.

"How 'bout 2000GAC, and breakfast is on me upon arrival?"

"I pick the place."

"That's probably for the best."

"You drive a hard bargain, McClain." She laughed, "You got yourself a deal, we'll get ready for departure momentarily, were gonna be flying for a few hours." She started leading him to the nearby Extraplanetary Station where her cargo ship was parked. Once boarded they made the transaction, GAC wasn't coin exclusive, they had a debit-card like system making it easier to carry without all the weight.

Tera then directed him to the back by a window. "Feel free to sleep, travels gonna take us ten vargas at least." She pulled out a blanket from an overhead cabinet placing it done in the chair next to him. "Hollar if you need anything, cockpits just beyond this door." Swinging the door wider than necessary so he could get a peek inside.

"Thanks." With that she closed the door behind her, he set down his bangs and got comfortable in the window seat wrapping up in the offered blanket. It felt thin like a regular bed sheet but it was heavy and warm. Once situated, he pulled out his new tablet and started looking over the star charts he'd been able to download from the Castle.

Lance had intended to stay awake, plan out his next move after purchasing his ship, but ended up falling asleep at some point. He awoke to Tera shaking his shoulder. "We're here."

"Mmmm? Already, what time is it?" He looked around still half asleep.

"I'd say it's just after nine, we ended up making good time. Now up, you owe me a meal, there's a place a few blocks from here." As he gathered his stuff, putting his tablet back in his bag, Tera folded the blanket and put it back in its place before turning to lead him out.

Of all the Planets Lance had seen Teegardie was probably the strangest. The Planet was tidally locked so half the surface was always facing the sun, this left everything in sight dry and scorching. Leaving the other half in permanent darkness, the surface on that side was made up of ice and snow. Due to the drastic temperatures, the locals congregated to living on the terminator line, the expansive area of land between both sides. Looking up, the sky was in a perpetual sunset casting the storefronts in golden orange, off in the distance to his left it got darker and on the right, it got brighter.

Teegardie was as advanced as the Olkari but appeared more metallic as there was no overgrowth of vegetation in sight, plant life had to be grown in special conditions and tended to be found indoors instead. Walking down the road away from the station a few children flew by playing on what looked like hovering skateboards.

"So, McClain, enlighten me, what is your story? Are you a fugitive, a runaway, an adventurer? Why go through all the trouble of finding a Trader?" Tera gave him a quizzical look, continuing to lead him down the road.

"Uh, I guess you could say I'm a runaway, I had to find a trader so that I couldn't be followed by my friends."

"If they are your friends why runaway?" She frowned, veering them down another road.

"Because I believe they're in danger, but none of them believe me so I need to find proof without putting them in more danger."

"Ah, very noble of you. We're here." Stopping she turned to point at the building beside him, it appeared to be a family-style type restaurant.

"Great cause I'm starved, Ladies first." Lance opened the door stepping aside to let Tera go first.

"Noble and gentlemanly, careful not all traders are like me, some would try to take advantage of your kindness." She smiled, "You're quite different from my usual clients."

"I do what I can, I'll keep the warning in mind but I can handle myself." Turns out the staff recognized Tera as she was a frequent customer and had a table in the back reserved specifically for her. They ended up continuing their small talk while they ate and enjoyed each other's company.

"This is where we part, do you need any directions before I go?" An hour had passed since they arrived, now they stood outside the restaurant entrance, Dainegal was the name of it Lance had learned while they had been eating.

"I need to get to a dealership, I think the owner's name was Nelav...Naleav? Maybe it was Nilov?" Lance was always better at remembering faces then he was with names.

"Nalov, I know his shop. It's on my way so it's no trouble to show you." Tera starts heading in a different direction.

"I appreciate the help. Tera, I understand this may be a strange request in your field of work, but would it be possible if we stayed in contact? I don't know what my future holds and I could really use someone who knows their way around, someone that I feel I can trust." It takes him a second to realize she had stopped walking.

"You wanna stay in touch? That is very strange" She looked to the side in thought. "You are full of surprises McClain," She turned back to him with a smile, "You said you were doing this because you felt your friends were in danger, most people these days would've left to save their own skins. I like you, and if I can help save your friends then I'll do what I can." 

Tera took the few steps it took to stand in front of him, lifting her arm to shake on the deal. Just as he went to grasp her hand she pulled it back, "But...you gotta promise to have a meal with me at Dainegal every once in a while, its nice to have company. Plus it's better to discuss gossip in person don't you think Lance." She lowered her hand with a devilish smirk.

It took him a second to realize what she'd called him. He took a step back as he stared at her in shock. "How did you...?"

"You really thought I wouldn't recognize a Paladin of Voltron, if I was that naive I wouldn't survive this kinda business." A laugh bubbled through her throat. She calmed down once she saw the unease in his face. "Don't worry, most people only notice the armour, I had seen you the other day in town with the others, that's how I recognized you. If you wear your helmet and stay out of sight of any security cameras you'll be fine." She hummed as she looked him over. "Maybe change your hair as well, might help in situations when you're not wearing your helmet."

Tentatively he ran his fingers through his hair. "That...makes sense. I guess that means your willing to help?"

"If it means putting an end to the Galra Empire then I'm in."

"So, we have a deal then?" Tera stuck her arm back out and they shook on it.

They swapped comm frequencies after that so that they could contact each other and continued their way to Nalov to purchase Lance's ship. Tera's comment about his hair convinced him to do something about it so she took him to a friend of hers on the other side of town. He'd decided to shave it along the sides and back leaving longer on the top, even going so far as to get dyed. 

Now it was late in the evening and he was alone in his ship staring at his reflection. His lip was still busted, most likely gonna leave a scar, but the bruises had been healing nicely leaving a yellow hue to is skin. When he had picked out colours for his hair he'd gone for something flashy compared to his natural colour, he hadn't realized how cliche it was until now. The roots on the top were a deep, almost purple shade of red, that blended out to the blue on the ends; the colours of his lions, well the colour of his _ and _Keith's lions. 

Would Keith have seen the video by now? A frown looked back at him in the mirror, would Keith like his hair or would he think it was foolish? He can admit the rivalry had been a stupid way of going about things, but when it came to guys he had no idea what to do to impress them.

With a groan, he shut off the light and walked to his tiny bedroom. Leaving the team the way he did, blaming Shiro, probably didn't help his chances either, not that he really ever had a chance. Hopefully, he could fix the relationship he had with Keith after all of this, but he'd give it a few days before contacting him to let everything fall into place.

The first few days had gone by in a blur, deciding to stay in Giles He was able to stop on neighboring planets for supplies, now he had more than just his bags to carry them in. It also gave him time to build some distance between him and the Castle of Lions. He'd succeeded in getting away from them, he couldn't risk getting caught running into them so soon, once he would be able to establish a connection with Keith, Lance would be able to stay updated on their movements.

Four days had passed at this point, he was currently parked at a swap-moon just on the outskirts Giles planning his next move. He was meeting Tera at Dainegal that night for dinner before moving on, so he wanted to have an idea of where to go next and run it by her first. After Kelpern the team had planned to visit Lotor at the Galra headquarters to discuss their next plan of action now that he was the emperor.

Lance stopped scrolling through the nearby star charts, he didn't know where the headquarters were, fuck. But, maybe Keith would, it was about time he got a hold of him. He turned off the holodesk he'd been using, heading to the cockpit where he'd left his tablet on the pilot seat. Keith's contact information had been transferred before he'd left the Castle. To keep the others from catching on he decided on a short simple message and hit send, now to wait for a response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone you gave kudos and commented on chapter one, it made me so happy and want to work harder on this. I was wondering if you guys would be interested in a YouTube playlist for this and character sheets/illustrations. Leave a comment if so.
> 
> Check me out on instagram @the_cryptic_artist to see a piece I did of Lance for this already.
> 
> Update:Finally got the picture to work and show up, yay.


End file.
